macrocephalopod

A jr analyst on an institutional desk will learn in six months what would take you three years of messing around with data on your own. Working on a desk for five years is the perfect preparation for PA trading, if you are still interested in doing that.

Great point. experience bit of that even learning from just 1 person. how's work:life balance for that? optimist in me hopes, it can be self taught. maybe it's naive. I also recognize, for better or for worse, I prefer running own thing vs clocking in for someone else

I lived at the office for about 3 years. 1st yr my role was booking trades, hedging fx risk and doing PnL calcs. Wkends were for creating strats which I'd pitch once a week. After that it's a mix of creating strats, maintenance, etc. Once you get your own book it's even busier.

Looking back, I can't believe how stupid many of my initial pitches were. Same goes for interns/first years who worked for me. If you're working with people who know what they're doing, they'll immediately tell you (or yell at you) why your idea won't work. That's pretty crucial

This is pretty important. You can learn on Twitter but on the whole people are quite nice and won’t necessarily tell you what you need to hear (which is sometimes “this is a really stupid idea, do something else”)

Quote from old boss "next time you get an idea like that, look in the mirror and ask 'am I about to waste <boss>'s time with a dumb idea I havent thought through properly?' And if yes, why don't you go back to your desk and do the job I'm paying you to do?" Was very helpful

could not agree more with all this. you learn the stuff by getting a job

Yup this was a mindblowing exchange for me (usually is haha) for sake of learning alone it seems like the way to go. I am nervous about how best to prepare